Social:

RSS:

App:

The voice of the Pope and the Church in dialogue with the World

language:

Vatican Radio

Home /
Justice & Peace

Pope Francis issues Peace Day Message

12/12/2013

SHARE:

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has issued his Message for the 2014 World Day of Peace,
to be marked on January 1st. The Message is themed Fraternity: the Foundation and
Pathway to Peace. Below, please find the official English text, in full.

*********************************************
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS FRANCIS FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE WORLD DAY OF PEACE

1
JANUARY 2014

FRATERNITY, THE FOUNDATION AND PATHWAY TO PEACE

1.
In this, my first Message for the World Day of Peace, I wish to offer to everyone,
individuals and peoples, my best wishes for a life filled with joy and hope. In the
heart of every man and woman is the desire for a full life, including that irrepressible
longing for fraternity which draws us to fellowship with others and enables us to
see them not as enemies or rivals, but as brothers and sisters to be accepted and
embraced.

Fraternity is an essential human quality, for we are relational beings.
A lively awareness of our relatedness helps us to look upon and to treat each person
as a true sister or brother; without fraternity it is impossible to build a just society
and a solid and lasting peace. We should remember that fraternity is generally first
learned in the family, thanks above all to the responsible and complementary roles
of each of its members, particularly the father and the mother. The family is the
wellspring of all fraternity, and as such it is the foundation and the first pathway
to peace, since, by its vocation, it is meant to spread its love to the world around
it.

The ever-increasing number of interconnections and communications in today’s
world makes us powerfully aware of the unity and common destiny of the nations. In
the dynamics of history, and in the diversity of ethnic groups, societies and cultures,
we see the seeds of a vocation to form a community composed of brothers and sisters
who accept and care for one another. But this vocation is still frequently denied
and ignored in a world marked by a “globalization of indifference” which makes us
slowly inured to the suffering of others and closed in on ourselves.

In many
parts of the world, there seems to be no end to grave offences against fundamental
human rights, especially the right to life and the right to religious freedom. The
tragic phenomenon of human trafficking, in which the unscrupulous prey on the lives
and the desperation of others, is but one unsettling example of this. Alongside overt
armed conflicts are the less visible but no less cruel wars fought in the economic
and financial sectors with means which are equally destructive of lives, families
and businesses.

Globalization, as Benedict XVI pointed out, makes us neighbours,
but does not make us brothers. The many situations of inequality, poverty and injustice,
are signs not only of a profound lack of fraternity, but also of the absence of a
culture of solidarity. New ideologies, characterized by rampant individualism, egocentrism
and materialistic consumerism, weaken social bonds, fuelling that “throw away” mentality
which leads to contempt for, and the abandonment of, the weakest and those considered
“useless”. In this way human coexistence increasingly tends to resemble a mere do
ut des which is both pragmatic and selfish.

At the same time, it appears clear
that contemporary ethical systems remain incapable of producing authentic bonds of
fraternity, since a fraternity devoid of reference to a common Father as its ultimate
foundation is unable to endure. True brotherhood among people presupposes and demands
a transcendent Fatherhood. Based on the recognition of this fatherhood, human fraternity
is consolidated: each person becomes a “neighbour” who cares for others.

“Where
is your brother?” (Gen 4:9)

2. To understand more fully this human vocation
to fraternity, to recognize more clearly the obstacles standing in the way of its
realization and to identify ways of overcoming them, it is of primary importance to
let oneself be led by knowledge of God’s plan, which is presented in an eminent way
in sacred Scripture.

According to the biblical account of creation, all people
are descended from common parents, Adam and Eve, the couple created by God in his
image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26), to whom Cain and Abel were born. In the story
of this first family, we see the origins of society and the evolution of relations
between individuals and peoples.

Abel is a shepherd, Cain is a farmer. Their
profound identity and their vocation is to be brothers, albeit in the diversity of
their activity and culture, their way of relating to God and to creation. Cain’s
murder of Abel bears tragic witness to his radical rejection of their vocation to
be brothers. Their story (cf. Gen 4:1-16) brings out the difficult task to which
all men and women are called, to live as one, each taking care of the other. Cain,
incapable of accepting God’s preference for Abel who had offered him the best of his
flock – “The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering; but for Cain and his offering
he had no regard” (Gen 4:4-5) – killed Abel out of jealousy. In this way, he refused
to regard Abel as a brother, to relate to him rightly, to live in the presence of
God by assuming his responsibility to care for and to protect others. By asking him
“Where is your brother?”, God holds Cain accountable for what he has done. He answers:
“I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen 4:9). Then, the Book of Genesis tells
us, “Cain went away from the presence of the Lord” (4:16).

We need to ask ourselves
what were the real reasons which led Cain to disregard the bond of fraternity and,
at the same time, the bond of reciprocity and fellowship which joined him to his brother
Abel. God himself condemns and reproves Cain’s collusion with evil: “sin is crouching
at your door” (Gen 4:7). But Cain refuses to turn against evil and decides instead
to raise his “hand against his brother Abel” (Gen 4:8), thus scorning God’s plan.
In this way, he thwarts his primordial calling to be a child of God and to live in
fraternity.

The story of Cain and Abel teaches that we have an inherent calling
to fraternity, but also the tragic capacity to betray that calling. This is witnessed
by our daily acts of selfishness, which are at the root of so many wars and so much
injustice: many men and women die at the hands of their brothers and sisters who are
incapable of seeing themselves as such, that is, as beings made for reciprocity, for
communion and self-giving.

“And you will all be brothers” (Mt 23:8)

3.
The question naturally arises: Can the men and women of this world ever fully respond
to the longing for fraternity placed within them by God the Father? Will they ever
manage by their power alone to overcome indifference, egoism and hatred, and to accept
the legitimate differences typical of brothers and sisters?

By paraphrasing
his words, we can summarize the answer given by the Lord Jesus: “For you have only
one Father, who is God, and you are all brothers and sisters” (cf. Mt 23:8-9). The
basis of fraternity is found in God’s fatherhood. We are not speaking of a generic
fatherhood, indistinct and historically ineffectual, but rather of the specific and
extraordinarily concrete personal love of God for each man and woman (cf. Mt 6:25-30).
It is a fatherhood, then, which effectively generates fraternity, because the love
of God, once welcomed, becomes the most formidable means of transforming our lives
and relationships with others, opening us to solidarity and to genuine sharing.

In
a particular way, human fraternity is regenerated in and by Jesus Christ through his
death and resurrection. The Cross is the definitive foundational locus of that fraternity
which human beings are not capable of generating themselves. Jesus Christ, who assumed
human nature in order to redeem it, loving the Father unto death on the Cross (cf.
Phil 2:8), has through his resurrection made of us a new humanity, in full communion
with the will of God, with his plan, which includes the full realization of our vocation
to fraternity.From the beginning, Jesus takes up the plan of the Father, acknowledging
its primacy over all else. But Christ, with his abandonment to death for love of
the Father, becomes the definitive and new principle of us all; we are called to regard
ourselves in him as brothers as sisters, inasmuch as we are children of the same Father.
He himself is the Covenant; in his person we are reconciled with God and with one
another as brothers and sisters. Jesus’ death on the Cross also brings an end to
the separation between peoples, between the people of the Covenant and the people
of the Gentiles, who were bereft of hope until that moment, since they were not party
to the pacts of the Promise. As we read in the Letter to the Ephesians, Jesus Christ
is the one who reconciles all people in himself. He is peace, for he made one people
out of the two, breaking down the wall of separation which divided them, that is,
the hostility between them. He created in himself one people, one new man, one new
humanity (cf. 2:14-16).All who accept the life of Christ and live in him acknowledge
God as Father and give themselves completely to him, loving him above all things.
The reconciled person sees in God the Father of all, and, as a consequence, is spurred
on to live a life of fraternity open to all. In Christ, the other is welcomed and
loved as a son or daughter of God, as a brother or sister, not as a stranger, much
less as a rival or even an enemy. In God’s family, where all are sons and daughters
of the same Father, and, because they are grafted to Christ, sons and daughters in
the Son, there are no “disposable lives”. All men and women enjoy an equal and inviolable
dignity. All are loved by God. All have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, who
died on the Cross and rose for all. This is the reason why no one can remain indifferent
before the lot of our brothers and sisters.Fraternity, the foundation and pathway
to peace4. This being said, it is easy to realize that fraternity is the foundation
and pathway of peace. The social encyclicals written by my predecessors can be very
helpful in this regard. It would be sufficient to draw on the definitions of peace
found in the encyclicals Populorum Progressio by Pope Paul VI and Sollicitudo Rei
Socialis by John Paul II. From the first we learn that the integral development of
peoples is the new name of peace. From the second, we conclude that peace is an opus
solidaritatis. Paul VI stated that not only individuals but nations too must
encounter one another in a spirit of fraternity. As he says: “In this mutual understanding
and friendship, in this sacred communion, we must also… work together to build the
common future of the human race”. In the first place, this duty falls to those who
are most privileged. Their obligations are rooted in human and supernatural fraternity
and are manifested in three ways: the duty of solidarity, which requires the richer
nations to assist the less developed; the duty of social justice, which requires the
realignment of relationships between stronger and weaker peoples in terms of greater
fairness; and the duty of universal charity, which entails the promotion of a more
humane world for all, a world in which each has something to give and to receive,
without the progress of the one constituting an obstacle to the development of the
other. If, then, we consider peace as opus solidaritatis, we cannot fail to acknowledge
that fraternity is its principal foundation. Peace, John Paul II affirmed, is an
indivisible good. Either it is the good of all or it is the good of none. It can
be truly attained and enjoyed, as the highest quality of life and a more human and
sustainable development, only if all are guided by solidarity as “a firm and persevering
determination to commit oneself to the common good”. This means not being guided
by a “desire for profit” or a “thirst for power”. What is needed is the willingness
to “lose ourselves” for the sake of others rather than exploiting them, and to “serve
them” instead of oppressing them for our own advantage. “The ‘other’ – whether a
person, people or nation – [is to be seen] not just as some kind of instrument, with
a work capacity and physical strength to be exploited at low cost and then discarded
when no longer useful, but as our ‘neighbour’, a ‘helper’”. Christian solidarity
presumes that our neighbour is loved not only as “a human being with his or her own
rights and a fundamental equality with everyone else, but as the living image of God
the Father, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and placed under the permanent action
of the Holy Spirit”, as another brother or sister. As John Paul II noted: “At that
point, awareness of the common fatherhood of God, of the brotherhood of all in Christ
– ‘children in the Son’ – and of the presence and life-giving action of the Holy Spirit,
will bring to our vision of the world a new criterion for interpreting it”, for changing
it. Fraternity, a prerequisite for fighting poverty 5. In his encyclical
Caritas in Veritate, my predecessor reminded the world how the lack of fraternity
between peoples and men and women is a significant cause of poverty. In many societies,
we are experiencing a profound poverty of relationships as a result of the lack of
solid family and community relationships. We are concerned by the various types of
hardship, marginalization, isolation and various forms of pathological dependencies
which we see increasing. This kind of poverty can be overcome only through the rediscovery
and valuing of fraternal relationships in the heart of families and communities, through
the sharing of joys and sorrows, of the hardships and triumphs that are a part of
human life. Moreover, if on the one hand we are seeing a reduction in absolute
poverty, on the other hand we cannot fail to recognize that there is a serious rise
in relative poverty, that is, instances of inequality between people and groups who
live together in particular regions or in a determined historical-cultural context.
In this sense, effective policies are needed to promote the principle of fraternity,
securing for people – who are equal in dignity and in fundamental rights – access
to capital, services, educational resources, healthcare and technology so that every
person has the opportunity to express and realize his or her life project and can
develop fully as a person. One also sees the need for policies which can lighten
an excessive imbalance between incomes. We must not forget the Church’s teaching
on the so-called social mortgage, which holds that although it is lawful, as Saint
Thomas Aquinas says, and indeed necessary “that people have ownership of goods”, insofar
as their use is concerned, “they possess them as not just their own, but common to
others as well, in the sense that they can benefit others as well as themselves”. Finally,
there is yet another form of promoting fraternity – and thus defeating poverty – which
must be at the basis of all the others. It is the detachment of those who choose
to live a sober and essential lifestyle, of those who, by sharing their own wealth,
thus manage to experience fraternal communion with others. This is fundamental for
following Jesus Christ and being truly Christian. It is not only the case of consecrated
persons who profess the vow of poverty, but also of the many families and responsible
citizens who firmly believe that it is their fraternal relationship with their neighbours
which constitutes their most precious good. The rediscovery of fraternity in the
economy6. The grave financial and economic crises of the present time – which
find their origin in the progressive distancing of man from God and from his neighbour,
in the greedy pursuit of material goods on the one hand, and in the impoverishment
of interpersonal and community relations on the other – have pushed man to seek satisfaction,
happiness and security in consumption and earnings out of all proportion to the principles
of a sound economy. In 1979 John Paul II had called attention to “a real perceptible
danger that, while man’s dominion over the world of things is making enormous advances,
he should lose the essential threads of his dominion and in various ways let his humanity
be subjected to the world and become himself something subject to manipulation in
many ways – even if the manipulation is often not perceptible directly – through the
whole of the organization of community life, through the production system and through
pressure from the means of social communication.”The succession of economic crises
should lead to a timely rethinking of our models of economic development and to a
change in lifestyles. Today’s crisis, even with its serious implications for people’s
lives, can also provide us with a fruitful opportunity to rediscover the virtues of
prudence, temperance, justice and strength. These virtues can help us to overcome
difficult moments and to recover the fraternal bonds which join us one to another,
with deep confidence that human beings need and are capable of something greater than
maximizing their individual interest. Above all, these virtues are necessary for building
and preserving a society in accord with human dignity. Fraternity extinguishes
war7. In the past year, many of our brothers and sisters have continued to endure
the destructive experience of war, which constitutes a grave and deep wound inflicted
on fraternity. Many conflicts are taking place amid general indifference. To
all those who live in lands where weapons impose terror and destruction, I assure
you of my personal closeness and that of the whole Church, whose mission is to bring
Christ’s love to the defenceless victims of forgotten wars through her prayers for
peace, her service to the wounded, the starving, refugees, the displaced and all those
who live in fear. The Church also speaks out in order to make leaders hear the cry
of pain of the suffering and to put an end to every form of hostility, abuse and the
violation of fundamental human rights. For this reason, I appeal forcefully to
all those who sow violence and death by force of arms: in the person you today see
simply as an enemy to be beaten, discover rather your brother or sister, and hold
back your hand! Give up the way of arms and go out to meet the other in dialogue,
pardon and reconciliation, in order to rebuild justice, trust, and hope around you!
“From this standpoint, it is clear that, for the world’s peoples, armed conflicts
are always a deliberate negation of international harmony, and create profound divisions
and deep wounds which require many years to heal. Wars are a concrete refusal to
pursue the great economic and social goals that the international community has set
itself”. Nevertheless, as long as so great a quantity of arms are in circulation
as at present, new pretexts can always be found for initiating hostilities. For this
reason, I make my own the appeal of my predecessors for the non-proliferation of arms
and for disarmament of all parties, beginning with nuclear and chemical weapons disarmament.
We cannot however fail to observe that international agreements and national laws
– while necessary and greatly to be desired – are not of themselves sufficient to
protect humanity from the risk of armed conflict. A conversion of hearts is needed
which would permit everyone to recognize in the other a brother or sister to care
for, and to work together with, in building a fulfilling life for all. This is the
spirit which inspires many initiatives of civil society, including religious organizations,
to promote peace. I express my hope that the daily commitment of all will continue
to bear fruit and that there will be an effective application in international law
of the right to peace, as a fundamental human right and a necessary prerequisite for
every other right. Corruption and organized crime threaten fraternity8. The
horizon of fraternity also has to do with the need for fulfilment of every man and
woman. People’s legitimate ambitions, especially in the case of the young, should
not be thwarted or offended, nor should people be robbed of their hope of realizing
them. Nevertheless, ambition must not be confused with the abuse of power. On the
contrary, people should compete with one another in mutual esteem (cf. Rm 12:10).
In disagreements, which are also an unavoidable part of life, we should always remember
that we are brothers and sisters, and therefore teach others and teach ourselves not
to consider our neighbour as an enemy or as an adversary to be eliminated. Fraternity
generates social peace because it creates a balance between freedom and justice, between
personal responsibility and solidarity, between the good of individuals and the common
good. And so a political community must act in a transparent and responsible way
to favour all this. Citizens must feel themselves represented by the public authorities
in respect for their freedom. Yet frequently a wedge is driven between citizens and
institutions by partisan interests which disfigure that relationship, fostering the
creation of an enduring climate of conflict. An authentic spirit of fraternity
overcomes the individual selfishness which conflicts with people’s ability to live
in freedom and in harmony among themselves. Such selfishness develops socially –
whether it is in the many forms of corruption, so widespread today, or in the formation
of criminal organizations, from small groups to those organized on a global scale.
These groups tear down legality and justice, striking at the very heart of the dignity
of the person. These organizations gravely offend God, they hurt others and they
harm creation, all the more so when they have religious overtones. I also think
of the heartbreaking drama of drug abuse, which reaps profits in contempt of the moral
and civil laws. I think of the devastation of natural resources and ongoing pollution,
and the tragedy of the exploitation of labour. I think too of illicit money trafficking
and financial speculation, which often prove both predatory and harmful for entire
economic and social systems, exposing millions of men and women to poverty. I think
of prostitution, which every day reaps innocent victims, especially the young, robbing
them of their future. I think of the abomination of human trafficking, crimes and
abuses against minors, the horror of slavery still present in many parts of the world;
the frequently overlooked tragedy of migrants, who are often victims of disgraceful
and illegal manipulation. As John XXIII wrote: “There is nothing human about a society
based on relationships of power. Far from encouraging, as it should, the attainment
of people’s growth and perfection, it proves oppressive and restrictive of their freedom”. Yet human beings can experience conversion; they must never despair of being
able to change their lives. I wish this to be a message of hope and confidence for
all, even for those who have committed brutal crimes, for God does not wish the death
of the sinner, but that he converts and lives (cf. Ez 18:23). In the broad context
of human social relations, when we look to crime and punishment, we cannot help but
think of the inhumane conditions in so many prisons, where those in custody are often
reduced to a subhuman status in violation of their human dignity and stunted in their
hope and desire for rehabilitation. The Church does much in these environments, mostly
in silence. I exhort and I encourage everyone to do more, in the hope that the efforts
being made in this area by so many courageous men and women will be increasingly supported,
fairly and honestly, by the civil authorities as well. Fraternity helps to preserve
and cultivate nature 9. The human family has received from the Creator a common
gift: nature. The Christian view of creation includes a positive judgement about
the legitimacy of interventions on nature if these are meant to be beneficial and
are performed responsibly, that is to say, by acknowledging the “grammar” inscribed
in nature and by wisely using resources for the benefit of all, with respect for the
beauty, finality and usefulness of every living being and its place in the ecosystem.
Nature, in a word, is at our disposition and we are called to exercise a responsible
stewardship over it. Yet so often we are driven by greed and by the arrogance of
dominion, possession, manipulation and exploitation; we do not preserve nature; nor
do we respect it or consider it a gracious gift which we must care for and set at
the service of our brothers and sisters, including future generations. In a particular
way, the agricultural sector is the primary productive sector with the crucial vocation
of cultivating and protecting natural resources in order to feed humanity. In this
regard the continuing disgrace of hunger in the world moves me to share with you the
question: How are we using the earth’s resources? Contemporary societies should reflect
on the hierarchy of priorities to which production is directed. It is a truly pressing
duty to use the earth’s resources in such a way that all may be free from hunger.
Initiatives and possible solutions are many, and are not limited to an increase in
production. It is well known that present production is sufficient, and yet millions
of persons continue to suffer and die from hunger, and this is a real scandal. We
need, then, to find ways by which all may benefit from the fruits of the earth, not
only to avoid the widening gap between those who have more and those who must be content
with the crumbs, but above all because it is a question of justice, equality and respect
for every human being. In this regard I would like to remind everyone of that necessary
universal destination of all goods which is one of the fundamental principles of the
Church’s social teaching. Respect for this principle is the essential condition for
facilitating an effective and fair access to those essential and primary goods which
every person needs and to which he or she has a right. Conclusion 10. Fraternity
needs to be discovered, loved, experienced, proclaimed and witnessed to. But only
love, bestowed as a gift from God, enables us to accept and fully experience fraternity. The
necessary realism proper to politics and economy cannot be reduced to mere technical
know-how bereft of ideals and unconcerned with the transcendent dimension of man.
When this openness to God is lacking, every human activity is impoverished and persons
are reduced to objects that can be exploited. Only when politics and the economy
are open to moving within the wide space ensured by the One who loves each man and
each woman, will they achieve an ordering based on a genuine spirit of fraternal charity
and become effective instruments of integral human development and peace. We Christians
believe that in the Church we are all members of a single body, all mutually necessary,
because each has been given a grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ,
for the common good (cf. Eph 4:7,25; 1 Cor 12:7). Christ has come to the world so
as to bring us divine grace, that is, the possibility of sharing in his life. This
entails weaving a fabric of fraternal relationships marked by reciprocity, forgiveness
and complete self-giving, according to the breadth and the depth of the love of God
offered to humanity in the One who, crucified and risen, draws all to himself: “A
new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you,
that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:34-35). This is the good news that demands
from each one a step forward, a perennial exercise of empathy, of listening to the
suffering and the hopes of others, even those furthest away from me, and walking the
demanding path of that love which knows how to give and spend itself freely for the
good of all our brothers and sisters. Christ embraces all of humanity and wishes
no one to be lost. “For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3:17). He does it without oppressing
or constraining anyone to open to him the doors of heart and mind. “Let the greatest
among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves” – Jesus Christ
says – “I am among you as one who serves” (Lk 22:26-27). Every activity therefore
must be distinguished by an attitude of service to persons, especially those furthest
away and less known. Service is the soul of that fraternity that builds up peace.
May Mary, the Mother of Jesus, help us to understand and live every day the fraternity
that springs up from the heart of her Son, so as to bring peace to each person on
this our beloved earth.